World Chapter 5.4

I thanked him and went inside.

Beyond a large, L-shaped desk, Heo Seok was sitting. He saw me, took off his glasses, and stood up.

“I’ve been waiting.”

“……Yes, hello. I apologize for my rudeness the other day.”

I bowed awkwardly and carefully perched on the very edge of the sofa at the conference table in front of his desk.

Heo Seok, sitting in the seat of honor, beckoned me over with a gesture. It was a gentle gesture.

“Are… are you asking me to sit next to you?”

“Yes, come closer.”

I moved and sat next to him in an awkward posture.

Heo Seok gazed at my face, flushed with nervousness, with a smile. Although his attitude was so gentle, a sharp sense of crisis arose, as if I were walking on thin ice.

Heo Seok pressed the intercom and asked his secretary to bring tea. Not even a few minutes later, the secretary came in with tea on a tray.

She politely placed a teacup in front of Heo Seok and then carefully placed one in front of me as well.

I thanked her.

“He’s a young student. Would a student like this kind of ginseng tea?”

“I apologize. I will bring another.”

The secretary replied flustered, as if she hadn’t thought of it.

“Ah, no. It’s alright. I like ginseng tea, too.”

As I answered, all tensed up, he smiled faintly. But I couldn’t smile, as if my facial muscles were frozen. I couldn’t erase the image of Heo Seok’s eyes from the other day, and that look overlapped with his current face.

“What is your relationship with Professor Kim?”

Is he talking about Hyungjo?

I slurped the hot tea, was startled, and put it down as I replied.

“He is one of the professors I respect. You know him well, don’t you, Assemblyman Heo? Kim Hyungjo……, the professor.”

Heo Seok seemed to think about something for a moment before speaking after a long pause.

“You know I searched your dorm, don’t you?”

“……!”

Heo Seok’s expression was icy. The gentle gestures and expression from a moment ago vanished in an instant, and his tone had also dropped a notch. It was as if he had completely taken off a mask.

It was strange. Heo Seok, with his cold, twisted smile, was less scary than when he was smiling, and I even felt a sense of relief, as if a corner of my tense heart was crumbling a little.

Instead of a clandestine search where we were hiding things, being deceitful, and sounding each other out, deep down I had been hoping he would be this direct with me.

“I know.”

The tips of my fingers, which had been trembling foolishly with nervousness, had now calmed down.

Searching another person’s room like that was a crime. The fact that Heo Seok had arbitrarily searched my dorm room and taken Hyungjo’s book came back to me, and a surge of emotion welled up from deep within my chest.

It was a good thing he hadn’t found Hyungjo’s diary; what would have happened if he had taken that? The sudden thought made uncontrollable anger flare up.

“You searched my room and had the library closed. Give me back my book. It’s not your book, Assemblyman.”

“I couldn’t find anything. Only that you had looked at the graduation album and old school newspapers.”

“Give me my book back.”

“Professor Kim……, a friend who still had much to do, gone just like that. It’s a shame.”

Heo Seok didn’t listen to a word I said and seemed to be faintly recalling Hyungjo. I spoke to him as he gazed into the air.

“They said he had a bad heart.”

“Right, what did Professor Kim say about me. Huh?”

“The professor……, he said Assemblyman Heo was an idealist, and that you had a bourgeois mentality.”

At my words, Heo Seok smiled quietly and muttered.

“Such criticism, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard that……”

“……”

I knew instinctively that he was thinking of Lee Taewan. Heo Seok was never one to care about such criticism in the first place. He cared because the one making the criticism was Lee Taewan. Whether the words were right or wrong didn’t matter. His entire purpose was to ignore and counter anything Lee Taewan said. I knew this better than anyone, as the one who had watched their intense debates from the closest vantage point.

Heo Seok was the kind of person who would throw away his bourgeois background as a rich young master without a second thought, if it meant he could make it so Taewan could never again make that jeering sound at him.

Their war of nerves and competition over Sungjoon was enough to exhaust anyone watching.

“An idealist with a bourgeois mentality……? Those are what brought me this far. What do you think, does it seem foolish in your eyes?”

“……”

Heo Seok wasn’t answering me.

Though he wasn’t here, that was an answer aimed at Taewan. A haughty confidence that he was the ultimate victor was settled on his proud face.

I wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t. Heo Seok’s words were true. His idealism, which Taewan had criticized, had lifted him to a height where he could sway the politics of South Korea. Taewan, who had rebuked that idealism, had died some thirty years ago.

Not his achievements, not his ideology, not even his name remained. No one knows.

Except for me……, no one else…….

Feeling a sense of futility, I answered quietly.

“No, you’re amazing.”

“Did Professor Kim say anything else.”

“The professor said he wanted to see Mr. Lee Taewan and Mr. Ji Sungjoon. He said that you would know, Assemblyman Heo, and that he really wanted to see them before he died……”

“You and Professor Kim are from different universities, so how do you know such details? I did some research on you. You never met Professor Kim before he died.”

“……That’s.”

“What is it, who put you up to this? Are you planning to cling to the current administration and cook up some scandal?”

“It’s not like that. I was really, really close with Professor Kim Hyungjo. We knew each other really well, that’s why.”

“You’ve never met Professor Kim Hyungjo.”

“No! I did!”

“……”

“I met the professor. I and the professor……, we met. We talked about many things. Don’t declare that we never met. You can’t possibly know everything that happens in the world, Assemblyman Heo.”

Heo Seok’s face crumpled in displeasure. He drank his ginseng tea and smacked his lips with a bitter taste. He slowly swirled the teacup in his hand, watching the cloudy sediment spin around inside, then slowly shook his head and said.

“You shouldn’t be scheming behind my back, Jung Hyunwoo. You really shouldn’t.”

“I haven’t schemed anything. I was just asking. About what happened to Mr. Lee Taewan and Mr. Ji Sungjoon. No one knows, do they? Other than you, Assemblyman……”

I was genuinely upset that Heo Seok wouldn’t see my true intentions, and as Heo Seok, who had been their closest friend and lover, disowned them once again, even the vague hope that I could get his help was mercilessly shattered.

My throat trembled as if I were about to cry.

Heo Seok gazed at me as if I were pitiful and pathetic.

“Yes, it’s a sad thing. They’re probably dead.”

“The professor said that Mr. Lee Taewan was the chairman of the Three People’s Struggle Committee, but I couldn’t find his name in the records.”

“It was a chaotic time. There wasn’t even anyone to properly organize the records.”

“I also read an article that you became the chairman after that, Assemblyman Heo, and the student movement was revived. Do you really not know what happened to Mr. Lee Taewan?”

“That’s not what’s important right now. They’re people who are already gone and no longer here.”

He leaned back on the sofa and looked down at me arrogantly. It was the look of someone viewing a painting in an exhibition, appraising its value. My face burned under his materialistic gaze.

He stared at me for a long time before speaking.

“You look like Sungjoon.”

“……”

“As far as I know, Ji Sungjoon has no son. No siblings, no cousins either.”

“……”

“You said you knew about my relationship with Ji Sungjoon, you definitely said that, didn’t you?”

“……”

“Did Professor Kim Hyungjo tell you that? Who was behind Kim Hyungjo? No matter how much you look like Ji Sungjoon, what are they plotting behind the scenes, using a young kid like you as a front? Was that Kim Hyungjo’s scheme as well? To try and shake me?”

“What……, what on earth are you talking about?”

“I don’t know how you caught Professor Kim Hyungjo’s eye, but you’re being used. What, did he offer you a lot of money? Did he say he’d get you a job at the university after you graduate? You have no idea what you’re doing right now.”

“The professor had no political intentions. He just said he wanted to see them……, he just said he missed them.”

I didn’t want to answer the way Hanse and I had planned.

It was like selling out Hyungjo’s beliefs. I was the only person in this world who knew the truth.

“No intentions, yet Professor Kim divulged such a private matter to you? For a brief time as a student, Kim Hyungjo was a friend so quiet I initially mistook him for a mute. That man, knowing full well my position in this country, told you such a story? You’re talking nonsense.”

“What if the professor wasn’t the one who told me?”

“……What?”

“You know his personality well too, Assemblyman. He’s not someone who would speak so carelessly.”

“Then who told you? Who exactly are you plotting with?”

He moved right up to me. The back of my spine went rigid. With wide eyes, I looked at the man who had come so close.

Heo Seok, who had been staring at me with one eyebrow contorted, let out a low groan. His hand cupped my cheek. The large hand felt like it was gripping my entire face.

“……You really look like Sungjoon. They picked you well…… from somewhere.”

As I flinched and my body trembled, his expression crumpled even more. He pulled back the upper body that had been leaning towards me and downed the half-cold tea in one gulp. It was a gesture of forcefully suppressing a nauseating feeling rising from his esophagus.

“Jung Hyunwoo, that’s what I’m curious about. How you know about the relationship between me and Sungjoon, that’s what I’m curious about.”

“……”

“You said it wasn’t divulged by Kim Hyungjo, right? The people who knew are all dead. All dead. Kim Hyungjo, Lee Taewan, and Ji Sungjoon.”

His tone was like a curse, as if anyone who knew that secret was bound to die. A shiver ran down my spine like a shudder.

“So how in the world do you know about it!”

He slammed his fist on the armrest of the sofa. I jumped, startled.

“That’s not important. I have no intention of blabbing about it to other people. I’m just, just trying to find out what happened to Lee Taewan and Ji Sungjoon……”

“Ah, ah, stop. You’re talking strange. No intention of blabbing? That sounds like you are going to blab. So, who did you take money from? Assemblyman Lee? Or from the Liberty Party?”

“I respect Mr. Ji Sungjoon. And you too, Assemblyman Heo. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to sell out a scandal for money. I have no thought or intention of doing such a thing. I just.”

“I don’t want to hear it. I’m a busy man. Just tell me how you found out. This isn’t a matter of whether you divulge it or not. Who in the world would believe you? Huh? It’s nonsensical.”

“Why is it nonsensical? Assemblyman, you loved Mr. Ji Sungjoon. If even you deny Mr. Ji Sungjoon……, what am I supposed to do?”

“……Shut your mouth.”

He stared intently at me, stunned into a daze by his words, then suddenly slapped my cheek. It was completely unexpected violence.

I couldn’t even dodge it and ended up taking the hit full in the face. A hot stinging sensation, as if a blood vessel had burst, flared up. As I clutched my left cheek, he slapped my right cheek hard this time.

Slap……!

I cupped both cheeks with my hands. With my hair disheveled, I stared at him with eyes full of fear.

He forcefully pulled down my hands that were clutching my cheeks. Holding my wrists as if shackling them in his hand, he slapped my cheeks fiercely again.

Slap, slap……!

The cracking sound and the pain from both cheeks made my head go numb. It was a cold, relentless violence that left no room for thought.

“Tell me, who told you!”

Slap, smack, his hand didn’t stop hitting my face. The burning, searing pain was compounded by a sharp ache, making it feel like I was being hacked at with a knife.

As Heo Seok hit me, even in my dazed state, I thought. That this must have happened to Sungjoon too……. After Heo Seok had ripped up Taewan’s drawing, Sungjoon’s cheeks had been swollen as if someone had beaten him.

The sound of his breathing as he hit me was ragged. It wasn’t torture to get the answer he wanted. Heo Seok was enjoying the violence.

“Who was it. Who said such a thing, huh? If it wasn’t Kim Hyungjo, then who! Who told you to go around spreading such a filthy rumor!”

“Hnngh……!”

“You need to be hit more. You need a beating. That way, that way……, that way you won’t look at that bastard.”

“Aack!”

“Speak. Who was it! Who the hell was it?!”

As he raised his hand high, I flinched, ducked my head, and shouted.

“I met Mr. Ji Sungjoon!”

“……What?”

“I said I met Mr. Ji Sungjoon!”

His expression twitched strangely.

It was as if he was laughing and crying at the same time……, as if he believed and didn’t believe…… But his eyes were not those of someone who had heard a preposterous lie. A cool shock seemed to pass right through him.

His eyes soon regained their reason and turned cold.

“Don’t lie. Ji Sungjoon is dead.”

“He’s not dead! I said he’s not dead!”

“……I saw it. I saw him die.”

“……!”

I shook off his hands that were restraining me and stood up. My legs were trembling.

“B-but you were the one who reported it, Assemblyman Heo. The missing person report……”

“Jung Hyunwoo, you have parents in the countryside, I hear. A quiet village. My aide went to visit once, and he said the people are all kind and it’s a good place.”

“Don’t do this. If you do that……, you’ll be punished.”

“Punishment……, the one who will be punished is not me, but you.”

His eyes, which had been looking at me as if wanting something more, turned away.

He pressed the intercom and said in a low voice.

“Tell Secretary Kim to come in.”

So that man was Secretary Kim.

The door opened and the man who had guided me here came in. Even at the sight of me staggering with my hair and clothes disheveled, unable to keep my balance, there was not a flicker of change in his expression.

Trembling with fear, I said.

“Someone saw me come in here.”

“I won’t do anything, Jung Hyunwoo.”

“……”

“Take this student out.”

Secretary Kim bowed his head to Heo Seok and grabbed my arm. As I stumbled, I was dragged by his arm and looked back at Heo Seok.

Heo Seok was resting his chin on the armrest of the sofa, gazing at me as if appraising me.

What is he seeing?

Is he seeing Ji Sungjoon in me?

“If there’s any sign of you moving even a single step, we’ll have no choice but to take action. Don’t do anything foolish.”

Heo Seok threatened me.

I was dragged out of his office by the man. The sound of my feet being dragged hysterically echoed in the quiet hallway.

I struggled. I resisted crudely, trying to twist and free myself from the man’s grip on my arm, but his hold was so strong that I couldn’t break free at all.

An unbearable anger surged. I bit his hand. The man didn’t even scream; he endured it. I bit harder. If I kept this up, I might tear his flesh.

Only then did the man push me away, let go of his hand, and look at me. Panting, I glared at him.

“You don’t have to drag me out, I’ll leave on my own two feet.”

Tears of frustration and indignation flowed. I wiped my eyes with my forearm and hurried out of there.

As soon as I left the building and was enveloped in the noise of the street, the pain hit me anew, and my face throbbed. When I touched it, the skin was sensitively swollen, as if burned.

Don’t cry. I don’t like seeing you cry.

Hyungjo’s voice, as if soothing and caressing me, echoed in my ears.

I firmly swallowed my tears and got on the subway. I hurried to Hanse, who would be waiting for me endlessly, his nerves on edge.

He was parked in front of the subway station where he had dropped me off, sitting inside the car.

The moment Hanse saw my face, he frowned fiercely.

“What’s wrong with your face? It’s swollen.”

“……”

“Did he hit you? Did you get hit? Did that bastard hit you?”

“……”

Hanse asked, touching my cheek. Just a light touch made my skin sting. I unconsciously winced and pulled away from his hand.

I felt like I was about to cry. They say you want to cry when you’re comforted, and it was true.

I bit my lower lip hard. If I let these sorrowful tears fall, Hanse’s heart would only become heavier.

Crying makes you an idiot. Crying makes you an idiot.

I mumbled the mantra to myself. That mantra only encouraged the tears more.